Halfords Apollo bikes

Michael spoke thusly:

Quoted message said:

Tosh said:

Hi I know halfords own brand don't get a great press but
can anyone tell me anything about the Apollo Enduro 1000,
spec, build quility etc. Thanks Tosh

One thing you need to remember is that Apollo Is Ownbrand
but Apollo itself does not have a factory, nor does
carrera, Top end Apollo's and New carreras are made now by
tradestar, That enduro is made by a french brand, other
apollos made by different companies.

Cheers

Michael

Thanks for the responses, the bike guy in my local Halfords
is pretty good, helpful and knows his stuff, I just heard
that this model was going on half price offer this weekend
260 down to 130 at some branches and wondering if it was
actually worth £130. Cheers Tosh

JohnB said:

Michael said:

Quoted message said:

The quality of service at Halfords is variable from
branch to branch and indeed within a single branch. I've
been served by some very knowledgeable assistants and
some real idiots.

This is the problem.

Whis is no different to using LBSs.

My LBS is a one man band who knows his stuff, so I never get
a [censored] assistant?

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I would like to put in a good word for the Halfords chap
in Dover - he's helpful, friendly, and allowing for the
fact that I dunno a lot about bikes (yet), he has been
as knowledgeable as I've needed him to be.

He's given me a lot of free advice regarding my Argos
bike (Jeep) & even gave me a spare c-spanner that I
needed!

It's obviously gonna depend on the store although I
would've have thought that an organisation as large as
Halfords would ensure there was a minimum level of
competence.

Unfortunatley bikehut staff turnover is pretty high mainly
because of uni, as I've said no one over 25 really aplies
so when september comes you lose the staff.

You pay peanuts... You get monkeys.

Same as most things in life really.

~One day, service organisations will realise that the
business gurus were right and people are your most valuble
asset. You need to 'recruit and retain' the right people.

--
.paul

If at first you don't succeed... Skydiving is probably not
the sport for you.

JohnB said:

Michael said:

Quoted message said:

The quality of service at Halfords is variable from
branch to branch and indeed within a single branch. I've
been served by some very knowledgeable assistants and
some real idiots.

This is the problem.

It always has been the problem at Halfords, to be brutal
they make their money selling [censored] to people who mainly
think bikes are toys for their kids.

Occasionally someone exceptionally keen and knowledgeable
will end up working there, but will leave after having to
unbox 1000 £80 kids bikes in the week before christmas and
deal with 400 returns the 1st week in january.

Halfords will burn Michael out in a year, I would advise
hime to stay there for the experiance but start touting that
experiance round proper shops.

Quoted message said:

Whis is no different to using LBSs.

LBS's lose business if they sell [censored], Halfords is like IKEA
you hate it but you keep going back.

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK

Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
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paul [email hidden] opined the
following...

Quoted message said:

~One day, service organisations will realise that the
business gurus were right and people are your most valuble
asset. You need to 'recruit and retain' the right people.

Pointy-Haired-Boss: I've been saying for years that
"Employees are our most valuable asset."...It turns out that
I was wrong. Money is our most valuable asset. Employees are
ninth. Wally: I'm afraid to ask what came in eighth. P-H-B:
Carbon Paper

Jon

paul said:

~One day, service organisations will realise that the
business gurus were right and people are your most valuble
asset. You need to 'recruit and retain' the right people.

Having spent three years working on retail recruitment
software, I can say with some confidence that some service
organisations are acutely aware of this.

--
Guy
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Just zis Guy said:

paul said:

~One day, service organisations will realise that the
business gurus were right and people are your most
valuble asset. You need to 'recruit and retain' the right
people.

Having spent three years working on retail recruitment
software, I can say with some confidence that some service
organisations are acutely aware of this.

B&Q have done very well out of recruiting older people - the
sort that usually have trouble getting jobs because of their
age. They have the added advantage that most of them will
have done DIY over the years, something most school leavers
have not experienced. Perhaps Halfords should consider it.

Tony

AndyMorris said:

It always has been the problem at Halfords, to be brutal
they make their money selling [censored] to people who mainly
think bikes are toys for their kids.

Well, possibly. Actually I think the problem with Halfords
is that they are applying the Pareto principle and
concentrating on the 20% of the product range that makes 80%
of the money. They did it most successfully with car parts,
driving many independent parts retailers out of business.
And then, when you need a grosset flange for your 1983
Little Wooden Engined Valhalla on a Saturday morning, the
shop that used to have one on the shelf is mysteriously
vanished, but Halfwits can order you one, it'll be there in
a week. Or so.

It's not about staff (except in as much as they routinely
under-staff every shop); however good the staff are, if the
component you want is not on the shelf, they can't sell it
to you. That's why I use a LBS. I could save money buying on
the Web, for sure, but the ability to walk into the shop at
a quarter to seven on a Thursday evening and buy exactly the
part I need (with 10% discount) is a boon.

If individual Bike Hut managers are allowed to stock their
shelves as they see fit, and are rewareded for customer
satisfaction, then there is no theoretical reason why the
bike ghetto in Halfwits should not be useful. Mind you, my
LBS has over twice the sales floor area of the local Bike
Hut, and it is packed form floor to ceiling in the usual
way; Bike Hut has a couple of dozen bikes tastefully
arranged with lots of browsing space. But I guess that sales
floor is devoted according to turnover.

--
Guy
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Tony Raven said:

B&Q have done very well out of recruiting older people -
the sort that usually have trouble getting jobs because of
their age. They have the added advantage that most of them
will have done DIY over the years, something most school
leavers have not experienced. Perhaps Halfords should
consider it.

The thing B&Q did, as I understand it, was to forget about
age and concentrate on the skills they wanted. At that point
the selection of mature candidates became not so much a
policy as an inevitability.

They also train their managers well, I'm told.

--
Guy
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On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:56:36 +0100, Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:

I could save

Quoted message said:

money buying on the Web, for sure, but the ability to
walk into the shop at a quarter to seven on a Thursday
evening and buy exactly the part I need (with 10%
discount) is a boon.

Ah, but that's only on a Thursday, isn't it? Every other day
they close at
18:00 and they don't even open on Sundays. (If you're
referring to AW Cycles, that is.)

--
Michael MacClancy Random putdown - "He loves nature in spite
of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker
www.macclancy.demon.co.uk www.macclancy.co.uk

Michael MacClancy said:

Quoted message said:

I could save money buying on the Web, for sure, but the
ability to walk into the shop at a quarter to seven on a
Thursday evening and buy exactly the part I need (with
10% discount) is a boon.

Quoted message said:

Ah, but that's only on a Thursday, isn't it? Every other
day they close at 18:00 and they don't even open on
Sundays. (If you're referring to AW Cycles, that is.)

True, but:
- they will drop stuff round to my house on other days
- for late-night emergencies there is the Bristow Cycle
Repair Service
- AW also run club nights

All in all, it's a service worth keeping. Especially now
they have Sue, who actually orders stuff, rather than the
old system where they would ask the rep next time they saw
him if they remembered ;-)

--
Guy
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Michael <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

You need to view each separate bikehut as exactly that
separate. I know for a fact that the local (proper) riders
much prefer our shop to the LBS, they didnt even know
there was such a thing as a crown race extraction tool.

Unfortunately Martlew claims that Halfords supported him in
his recent fiasco. He was wrong in a number of other claims
he made (and I hope he will be called on to apologise to the
House for these). Any idea whether he was wrong in this too?

--
Dave...

Just zis Guy said:

AndyMorris wrote:

Quoted message said:

If individual Bike Hut managers are allowed to stock their
shelves as they see fit, and are rewareded for customer
satisfaction, then there is no theoretical reason why the
bike ghetto in Halfwits should not be useful. Mind you, my
LBS has over twice the sales floor area of the local Bike
Hut, and it is packed form floor to ceiling in the usual
way; Bike Hut has a couple of dozen bikes tastefully
arranged with lots of browsing space. But I guess that
sales floor is devoted according to turnover.

Hear hear, lol. We stock 8 different bmx's in our store. 8
different sports road bikes, 6 differnt tourers/hybrids. 26
premium bikes inc GT kona saracen and carrera. 32 under 200
pounds gents/ladies mountain bikes + same number of kiddes
bikes and all these on display on the shop floor, our LBS
has about 20 bikes total.

But we are one of the biggest/highest turnover in the area.

Cheers

Michael

Just zis Guy said:

Tony Raven said:

B&Q have done very well out of recruiting older people -
the sort that usually have trouble getting jobs because of
their age. They have the added advantage that most of them
will have done DIY over the years, something most school
leavers have not experienced. Perhaps Halfords should
consider it.

The thing B&Q did, as I understand it, was to forget about
age and concentrate on the skills they wanted. At that
point the selection of mature candidates became not so
much a policy as an inevitability.

They also train their managers well, I'm told.

We dont get them applying is our problem

Cheers

Michael

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:41:31 GMT, Michael
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The thing B&Q did, as I understand it, was to forget
about age and concentrate on the skills they wanted. At
that point the selection of mature candidates became not
so much a policy as an inevitability. They also train
their managers well, I'm told.

Quoted message said:

We dont get them applying is our problem

That's the company's failure. B&Q are extremely good at
selling themselves as an employer; if Halfords is still
stuck in the 1980s mindset of offering employment and the
lucky few get it, they will not get good people except by
accident. Look at the way firms like B&Q, Wetherspoons and
HMV "sell" their jobs.

--
Guy
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Just zis Guy said:

paul said:

~One day, service organisations will realise that the
business gurus were right and people are your most
valuble asset. You need to 'recruit and retain' the right
people.

Having spent three years working on retail recruitment
software, I can say with some confidence that some service
organisations are acutely aware of this.

Having spent three years or so as director of a (one-man)
company, I can say with confidence that it is not true. If
you list your employees as assets, the accountants/auditors
will tend to pick up on
it.

If you owe them wages, you could list that as liabilities.
Don't know if that helps ;-)

-dan

--
"please make sure that the person is your friend before
you confirm"

Daniel Barlow said:

Having spent three years or so as director of a (one-man)
company, I can say with confidence that it is not true. If
you list your employees as assets, the
accountants/auditors will tend to pick up on
it.

A one-man company is probably a bit misleading. There are
plenty of examples the other way, not least of which is key-
man insurance which provides compensation for the loss in
value of a company if it loses a key individual. Having
spent 15 years as Chairman or Director of quite a few
reasonably sized companies I can tell you employees are
considered important assets by good companies. After all
your competitors can have identical bricks and mortar and IT
systems to you, so its your people and the way you allow
them to express their abilities that differentiate you from
your competition.

Tony

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:49:16 GMT, Michael
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Hear hear, lol. We stock 8 different bmx's in our store. 8
different sports road bikes, 6 differnt tourers/hybrids. 26
premium bikes inc GT kona saracen and carrera. 32 under 200
pounds gents/ladies mountain bikes + same number of kiddes
bikes and all these on display on the shop floor, our LBS
has about 20 bikes total.

Whereas my LBS has over forty different road racing
bikes alone...

--
Guy
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Washington University

On Sat, 01 May 2004 10:45:45 +0100,

Just zis Guy said:

get good people except by accident. Look at the way firms
like B&Q, Wetherspoons and HMV "sell" their jobs.

I don't think Wetherspoons is a particularly good example.
They had a lot of good will from the RA community when they
started, but due to a lot of incompetent managers, cellar
and serving staff seem to have lost that.

--
Andy Leighton => [email hidden] "The Lord is my
shepherd, but we still lost the sheep dog trials"
- Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us_

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:49:16 GMT, Michael
<[email hidden]> wrote in message <gZykc.1582$0q.15544489@news-
text.cableinet.net>:

Quoted message said:

Hear hear, lol. We stock 8 different bmx's in our store.
8 different sports road bikes, 6 differnt
tourers/hybrids. 26 premium bikes inc GT kona saracen and
carrera. 32 under 200 pounds gents/ladies mountain bikes
+ same number of kiddes bikes and all these on display on
the shop floor, our LBS has about 20 bikes total.

Whereas my LBS has over forty different road racing bikes
alone...

Where is your LBS? I like the sound of it!

Jon